Posted in Whathaveyou on May 6th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Cali psych-shred lords Earthless will spend the first half of August on tour in Europe for festivals and such — look up Palp if you haven’t; jaw-dropping — and as September brings in the Australian Springtime, they’ll head down under for a stretch of six shows wrapping at Blacken Festival on Sept. 20 in Alice Springs. They’ve got some off-days there, and one can’t help but be curious if guitarist Isaiah Mitchell might team up with Seedy Jeezus — whose Lex Wattereus handled the poster below — for another Tranquonauts jam, perhaps to be released sometime in the next few years to follow later-2024’s 2 (review here). Not holding my breath, not privy to insider info, just a thing that would be cool that could potentially happen next to another cool thing that already is happening — i.e. the tour.
Of course, Earthless have been hither and yon, back and forth to Europe since their 2022 album, Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (review here), came out on Nuclear Blast. As the bulk of their impact has always been on-stage — no, I have nothing against Earthless records; calm down — this is only appropriate. The European run will see them celebrating the 20th anniversary of 2005’s Sonic Prayer, their first album. As good an occasion as any, but really, the point is once you see Earthless on stage, you understand the band in a different way, and I guess maybe I’m speaking to anybody who hasn’t and maybe doesn’t see the impact they’ve had and what they’re able to tap into musically, but in their own or any other generation of rockers you’d want to place them, they are something special.
From socials:
We are beyond stoked to be returning to the beautiful land of Australia this coming September 2025!! Australia is a home away from home for the band and any opportunity we get to play there is a massive honor. Thank you for all the love and support through the years!! We’re really looking forward to seeing you at the shows!! Tickets are on sale now:https://www.earthlessofficial.com/tour-datesORhttps://davidroywilliams.com/
AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2025 10 Sept – Brisbane – Crowbar Brisbane 11 Sept – Sydney – Crowbar Sydney 12 Sept – Melbourne – Corner Hotel 13 Sept – Castlemaine – Theatre Royal Castlemaine 14 Sept – Geelong – The Barwon Club Hotel 20 Sept – Alice Springs – BLACKEN OPEN AIR Poster by Lex Waterreus 🤯
EUROPE SUMMER 2025 TICKETS:www.earthlessofficial.com/tour-dates 2 August – Milan IT – MAGNOLIA STONE FESTIVAL 3 August – Bagnes CH – PALP festival 5 August – Barcelona ES – Sala Upload Barcelona * 6 August – Portugalete ES – Groove * 7 August – Ancora PT – SonicBlast Fest 8 August – Madrid ES – Nazca Madrid * 10 August – Kortrijk BE – ALCATRAZ MUSIC 11 August – Breda NL – MEZZ 12 August – Dortmund DE – Musiktheater Piano 13 August – Berlin DE – Neue Zukunft 14 August – Hamburg DE – Knust Hamburg 15 August – København DK – Spillestedet Stengade *: Heavy Trip (Canada) supporting
EARTHLESS Lineup: Isaiah Mitchell – Guitar & Vocals Mike Eginton – Bass Mario Rubalcaba – Drums
Day three. Yesterday had its challenges as regards timing, but ultimately I wound up where I wanted to be, which is finished with the writing. Fingers crossed I’m so lucky today. Last time around I hit into a groove pretty early and the days kind of flew, so I’m due a Quarterly Review where it’s a little more pulling teeth to make sentences happen. I’m doing my best either way. That’s it. That’s the update. Let’s go Wednesday.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Godzillionaire, Diminishing Returns
Tell you what. Instead of pretending I knew Godzillionaire at all before this record came along or that I had any prior familiarity with frontman Mark Hennessy‘s ’90s-era outfit Paw — unlike everything else I’ve seen written about the band — I’ll admit to going into Diminishing Returns relatively blind. And somehow it’s still nostalgic? With its heart on its sleeve and one foot in we’re-all-definitely-over-all-that-shit-from-our-20s-by-now-right-guys poetic moodiness, the Lawrence, Kansas, four-piece veer between the atmospherics of “Spin Up Spin Down” and more grounded grooves like that of “Boogie Johnson” or “3rd Street Shuffle.” “Unsustainable” dares post-rock textures and an electronic beat, “Astrogarden” has a chug imported from 1994 and the seven-minutes-each capstone pair “Common Board, Magic Nail,” which does a bit of living in its own head, and “Shadow of a Mountain,” which has a build but isn’t a blowout, reward patient listens. I guess if you were there in the ’90s, it’s god-tier heavy underground hype. From where I sit, it’s pretty solid anyhow.
In Flight is the second full-length from Portland, Oregon’s Time Rift, and it brings the revamped trio lineup of vocalist Domino Monet, founding guitarist Justin Kaye and drummer Terrica Catwood to a place between classic heavy rock and classic metal, colliding ’70s groove and declarative ’80s NWOBHM riffing — advance single “The Hunter” strikes with a particularly Mob Rulesian tone, but it’s relatable to a swath of non-sucky metal of the age — such that “Follow Tomorrow” finds a niche that sounds familiar in its obscurity. They’re not ultimately rewriting any playbooks stylistically, but the balance of the production highlights the organic foundation without coming across like a put-on, and the performances thrive in that. Sometimes you want some rock and roll. Time Rift brought plenty for everyone.
Canadian instrumentalist trio Heavy Trip released their sophomore LP, Liquid Planet, in Nov. 2024, following on from 2020’s Burning World-issued self-titled debut (review here). A 13-minute title-track serves as opener and longest inclusion (immediate points), setting a high standrad for scorch that the pulls and shred of “Silversun,” the rush and roll of “Astrononaut” (sic) and capper “Mudd Red Moon” with its maybe-just-wah-all-the-time push and noisy comedown ending, righteously answer. It’s easy enough on its face to cite Earthless as an influence — instrumental band with ace guitarist throwing down a gauntlet for 40 minutes; they’re also touring Europe together — but Heavy Trip follow a trajectory of their own within the four songs and are less likely to dwell in a part, as the movement within “Astrononaut” shows plainly. I won’t be surprised when their next one comes with label backing.
An impressive debut from UK four-piece Slung, whose provenance I don’t know but who sound like they’ve been at it for a while and have come into their first album, In Ways, with clarity of what they want in terms of sound and songwriting. “Laughter” opens raucous, and “Class A Cherry” follows with a sleeker slower roll, while “Come Apart” pushes even further into loud/quiet trades for a soaring chorus and “Collider” pays off its early low-end tension with a melodic hook that feels so much bigger than what one might find in a three-minute song. It goes like that: one cut after another, for 11 songs and 37 minutes, with Slung skillfully guiding the listener from the front of the record to the back. The going can be intense, like “Matador” or the crashing “Thinking About It,” more contemplative like “Limassol” and “Heavy Duty,” and there’s even room for a title-track interlude before the somewhat melancholic “Nothing Left” and “Falling Down” close, though that might only be because Slung use their time so well.
Madrid-based progressive heavy rockers Greengoat return on a quick turnaround from 2024’s A.I. (review here) to Aloft, which over 33 minutes plays through seven songs each of which has been given a proper name: the album intro is “Zohar,” it moves into the grey-toned tension of “Betty,” “Jim” is moody, “Barney” takes it for a walk, and so on. The big-riffed centerpiece “Travis” is a highlight slog, and “Ariel,” which follows, is thoughtful in its melody and deceptively nuanced in the underlying rhythm. That’s kind of how Greengoat do. They’ve taken their influences — and in the case of closer “Charles,” that includes black metal — and internalized them toward their own methodologies, and as such, Aloft feels all the more individually constructed. Hail Iberia as Western Europe’s most undervalued heavy hotspot.
If it seems a little on the nose for Author & Punisher, modern industrial music’s most doom-tinged purveyor, to cover Godflesh, who helped set the style in motion in the first place, yeah, it definitely is. That accounts for the reverence with which Tristan Shone treats the track that originally appeared on 1994’s Selfless LP, and maybe is part of why the song’s apparently been sitting for 11 years since it was recorded in 2014. Accordingly, if some of the sounds remind of 2015’s Melk en Honig (discussed here), the era might account for that. In Shone‘s interpretation, though, the defeated vocal of Justin K. Broadrick becomes a more aggressive rasp and the guitar is transposed to synth. One advantage to living in the age of content-creation is stuff like this gets released at all, let alone posted so you can stream or download as you will. Get it now so when it shows up on the off-album-tracks compilation later you can roll your eyes and be extra cool.
Children of the Sün, Leaving Ground, Greet the End
It’s gotta be a trap, right? The third full-length from Arvika, Sweden, heavy-hippie folk-informed psychedelic rockers Children of the Sün can’t really be this sweet, right? The soaring “Lilium?” The mellow, lap-steel-included motion in “Come With Us?” The fact that they stonerfy “Whole Lotta Love?” Yeah, no way. I know how this goes. You show up and the band are like, “Hey everything’s cool, check out this better universe we just made” and then the next thing you know the floor drops out and you’re doing manual labor on some Swedish farm to align yourself with some purported oneness. I hear you, “Starlighter.” You’re gorgeous and one of many vivid temptations on Leaving Ground, Greet the End, but you’ll not take my soul on your outbound journey through the melodic cosmos. I’m just gonna stay here and be miserable and there’s nothing you or that shiver-down-the-spine backing vocal in “Lovely Eyes” can do about it. So there.
While the core math at work in Pothamus‘ craft in terms of bringing together crushing, claustrophobic tonality, aggressive purposes and expansive atmospherics isn’t necessarily new for a post-metallic playbook, but the melodies that the Belgian trio keep in their pocket for an occasion like “De-Varium” or the drone-folk “Ykavus” before they find another layer of breadth in the 15-minute closing title-track are no less engrossing across the subdued stretches within the six songs of Abur than the band are consuming at their heaviest, and the percussion in the early build of the finale says it better than I could, calling back to the ritualism of opener “Zhikarta” and the way it seems to unfold another layer of payoff with each measure as it crosses the halfway point, only to end up squeezing itself through a tiny tube of low end and finding freedom on the other side in a flood of drone, the entire album playing out its 46 minutes not like parts of a single song, but vivid in the intention of creating a wholeness that is very much manifest in its catharsis.
Gentle Beast, Vampire Witch Reptilian Super Soldier (…From Outer Space)
Gentle Beast are making stoner rock for stoner rockers, if the cumbersome title Vampire Witch Reptilian Super Soldier (…From Outer Space) of the Swiss five-piece’s sophomore LP didn’t already let you know, and from the desert-careening of “Planet Drifter” through the Om-style meditation of “Riding Waves of Karma” (bonus points for digeridoo) ahead of the janga-janga verse and killer chorus of “Revenge of the Buffalo,” they’re not shy about highlighting the point. There’s a spoken part in the early going of “Voodoo Hoodoo Space Machine” that seems to be setting up a narrative, and the organ-laced ending of “Witch of the Mountain” certainly could be seen as a chapter of that unfolding story, but I can’t help but feel like I’m thinking too hard. Go with the riffs, because for sure the riffs are going. Gentle Beast hit pretty hard, counter to the name, and that gives Vampire Witch etc. etc. an outwardly aggressive face, but nobody’s actually getting punched here, they’re just loud having a good time. You can too.
Metal and psychedelia rarely interact with such fluidity, but South Africa’s Acid Magus have found a sweet spot where they can lead a record off with a seven-minute onslaught like “War” and still prog out four minutes later on “Incantations” just because both sound so much in their wheelhouse. In addition, the fullness of their tones and modern production style, the way post-hardcore underlines both the nod later in “Wytch” and the shoving apex of “Emperor” is a unifying factor, while the bright-guitar interludes “Ascendancy” and “Absolution” broaden the palette further and contrast the darker exploration of “Citadel” and the finale “Haven,” which provides a fittingly huge and ceremonious culmination to Scatterling Empire‘s sense of space. It’s almost too perfect in terms of the mix and the balance of the arrangements, but when it hits into a more aggressive moment, they sound organic in holding it together. Acid Magus have actively worked to develop their approach. It’s hard to see the quality of these songs as anything other than reward for that effort.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 2nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Ah, Sacri Monti, summering in Europe once again. By my count this upcoming run — which looks like a banger with stops at Freak Valley (see you there), Pamouss Festival, Rock in Bourlon, Stoned From the Underground and Red Smoke finishing in Poland — will be at least the sixth time the five-piece have gone abroad to tour in the decade since their first album came out, and that’s pretty significant even before you get to those asterisked plague years.
The occasion of their return to Euro shores in 2025 is to continue to support last year’s LP, Retrieval (review here), and at this point, a lot of this band’s life has happened on the road. It’s been a few years since I caught them last, but their sound has only grown in that time and the latest record is their finest work to-date, so if you’re in Europe and you’re at this point kind of getting used to having the band around, maybe starting to take them for granted, my advice is don’t.
The following was hoisted from socials:
SACRI MONTI – EUROPE 2025 TOUR
We are proud to announce another European tour this year in support of our latest album ‘Retrieval.’ Looking forward a handful of festivals and club shows in some new and familiar places we’ve been. Tour poster design by the talented @branca_studio Big thanks to @swampbooking for another banger. See you soon Europe….
Europe 2025 20/06/2025 DE Siegen Freak Valley 21/06/2025 NL Tilburg Little Devil 22/06/2025 NL Amsterdam de Tanker in Noord 24/06/2025 IT Sezzadio Cascina Bellaria 25/06/2025 IT Treviso Altroquando 26/06/2025 CH Aarau Kiff 27/06/2025 FR Manigod Namass Pamouss festival 28/06/2025 FR Dijon Tanneries II 29/06/2024 FR Bourlon Rock In Bourlon 03/07/2025 DK Ebsjerg Kulturscenen 04/07/2025 DK Copenhagen Lygtens Kro 05/07/2025 SE Stockholm Geronimo’s FGT 06/07/2025 SE Malmo Plan B 08/07/2025 DE Berlin Neue Zukunft 09/07/2025 AT Vienna Viper Room 10/07/2025 SK Bratislava Žalár 11/07/2025 DE Erfurt Stoned From The Underground 12/07/2025 PL Pleszew Red Smoke Festival
Sacri Monti is: Brenden Dellar -Guitar Dylan Donovan- Guitar Anthony Meier- Bass Evan Wenskay- Organ, Synth Thomas Dibenedetto- Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 2nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Earthless live, certainly a hot Europe in August is as good a time as any. The Cali instrumentalist kingpins are set to appear at Italy’s Magnolia Stone Festival, PALP Fest in the Swiss Alps, SonicBlast Fest in Portugal and Alcatraz Festival in Belgium on an efficient two-week stint presented by Ben Ward of Orange Goblin‘s agency, Route One Booking, as well as Napalm Events. They’ll be joined for the run by Canadian upstarts Heavy Trip, who also this month undertook their first tour of the US East Coast.
Earthless touring, well, yeah, it’s not exactly a surprise when they get out at any point. It’s probably pretty convenient if you’re in a band to be able to basically look anywhere in the world and say, “okay, let’s go here at this time,” and then make it happen, and Earthless aren’t playing stadiums, but among underground heavy of any sort, they’re one of the farthest reaching bands the genre and its infinity of offshoots has to offer. Kicking ass is the least of what they do, and their influence continues to spread as a new generation of heavy psych and heavy anything takes shape in their wake.
Looks like a good time to me:
EARTHLESS – EUROPE SUMMER 2025
HEADS UP! 🌍✈️🔥🤯 We’re returning to Europe this summer! Tickets are on sale now for all dates! Hope to cross paths with many of you on the road…
2 August – Milan IT – MAGNOLIA STONE FESTIVAL 3 August – Bagnes CH – PALP festival 5 August – Barcelona ES – Sala Upload Barcelona * 6 August – Portugalete ES – Groove * 7 August – Ancora PT – SonicBlast Fest 8 August – Madrid ES – Nazca Madrid * 10 August – Kortrijk BE – ALCATRAZ MUSIC 11 August – Breda NL – MEZZ 12 August – Dortmund DE – Musiktheater Piano 13 August – Berlin DE – Neue Zukunft 14 August – Hamburg DE – Knust Hamburg 15 August – København DK – Spillestedet Stengade
*: Heavy Trip (Canada) supporting
Flyer illustration by Mike Eginton Flyer design by Ake Arndt EARTHLESS Lineup: Isaiah Mitchell – Guitar & Vocals Mike Eginton – Bass Mario Rubalcaba – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Starting with a slot at Desertfest London 2025, Earthless guitarist Isaiah Mitchell (also known for touring with The Black Crowes, Golden Void, that time he taught an entire San Diegan psych scene how to play guitar, and so on) will embark on a tour that’s being called ‘CHÖD’ in honor of the Buddhist ritual it’s intended to convey. Mitchell will be touring with graphics and video courtesy of the likewise-esteemed Arik Roper, and while it’s not the biggest run you’ll ever see Mitchell do — Earthless have a tendency to tour like bastards, and he’s got plenty going on besides — it seems like something special for fans in a few cities in Iberia to get to have the chance to see.
Do I know for sure that anyone in any of these places is going to see this on the site and go to the show and have their life changed for the better by an interpersonal interaction with creative work being made in the moment? Nope. But there’s always the off-chance, and from where I sit it’s just good to keep in mind cool things are happening somewhere on the planet.
I’ve included video from a different Mitchell solo performance below. No idea if it has anything musically to do with what ‘CHÖD’ will be or not, but it seemed relevant nonetheless and one has a habit of putting these things in posts, so whatever. Check it out or don’t but this sounds awesome to me, and if you’re in the NY area, heads up Mitchell will be doing a show April 5. More on that is at this external link.
Here’s this from socials:
I am very excited to announce that my artistic collaboration with @arikroper and @doc_kelley will be travelling to Europe for a handful of dates in Spain and Portugal this coming May!!! This performance is an interpretation of the Tibetan Buddhist Ritual CHÖD, which means roughly “to sever” or “cut through” the attachment to our ego and clingings to reality and embrace impermenance by facing our fears. I will be performing music arranged specifically for this practice and the art and animation of Arik Roper will be accompanying the music as to take you on an immersive cerebral journey to the depths of our self in hopes of transcending all that is unreal and awaken to our true nature. A huge thank you to @ @thunderricky at @swampbooking for setting these shows up for us, to @cbruno1983 for the use of his amazing photographs and to my wonderful wife @hathamartahatha for making this awesome poster. See you all at the shows🙏🙏🙏🙏 @psychedelic_sangha @dharma_art_productions
Posted in Reviews on January 28th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Guides for the Misguided is the 10th 16 full-length, and at least on paper, there are few mysteries about it. 16, as a group, have more than 30 years under their belt, and their sound is well established someplace between sludge, hardcore and metal, a malleable balance more often than not set to bludgeon. And the thing about the band at this point is if every couple years they wanted to churn out a collection of hard-hitting, probably-fast, probably-aggressive riffs and shouts, it would most likely be fine. The band would go through the motions, the fans who dig it would dig it, and the planet keeps spinning.
Fronted by founding guitarist Bobby Ferry, who assumed the mantle of lead vocalist for 2022’s Into Dust (review here) after Cris Jerue‘s departure following 2020’s Dream Squasher (review here), with lead guitarist/producer Alex Shuster, bassist Barney Firks and drummer Dion Thurman, 16 walk a harder line. Since coming back from a break between 2002 and 2009 with their first album for Relapse Records, 2009’s Bridges to Burn (discussed here), the band have not only been productive, but have charted a course of incremental, regular growth and progression that Guides for the Misguided puts into emphasis as the revamped dynamic of the band continues to shake out.
The core approach hasn’t changed. “Resurrection Day” gets very, very, very heavy by the time its five minutes are up, and the subsequent Bad Brains cover “Give Thanks and Praises” is only too happy to mop up what’s left afterward with punkish fervor. But for the first time, 16 feature some cleaner singing alongside the more familiar shouts, growls and rasps, and as ferocious as opening duo “After All” and “Hat on a Bed” are, the textures brought to pieces like “Blood Atonement Blues,” which follows, touches on horror cinema atmosphere and boasts a standout hook in the line “The dead’ll claim you,” as well as “Proudly Damned,” “Desperation Angel” and “Kick Out the Chair,” which is the only song on Guides for the Misguided over six minutes long and precedes a bonus Superchunk cover “The Tower,” are new for them.
Traditionally speaking, this is dangerous ground. A band who’ve been around for a long time, who are known for doing things a certain way, and so on. The truth is 16 have never been so pigeonholed, and even in their ’90s pill-popper sludgepunk yore, they were a tough act to pin down, and “Fortress of Hate” doesn’t make it any easier with its layering of clean and harsh takes, amid a telltale chug that is as characteristic an element as 16‘s sound has beyond the fact that so often their delivery is unified in having the force of a facebound hammer. I honestly don’t know if metal bands getting crap for trying to sing is a thing anymore, but it used to be.
A generation ago, people talked about bands selling out when stuff like that happened, but 16 aren’t stupid and if you hear Guides for the Misguided and think it’s the sound of a band who’ve ‘gone commercial’ — whatever that would even mean for heavy music in 2025 — then it’s a question of perspective. Who would 16 be selling out to? And for what? You think someone’s just waiting with a pile of cash to trade to a band of dudes in their 40s and 50s for their integrity as represented by harsh vocals?
Wouldn’t that be nice.
Instead, united around a familiar-enough anti-religious lyrical theme, 16‘s songs are simply able to do more than they were before. That’s true in the likes of “Proudly Damned,” which opens from its lumbering verse into a more open hook, setting up intertwining solos with harmonized dramatic melody as a preface for what’s to come in “Kick Out the Chair,” as well as in the plod-into-chug-charge in the unrepentantly catchy “Fire and Brimstone Inc.” — the chorus, “I came here believing in nothing/You reaffirmed my faith…” arriving a second time only after a suitable build is laid out, only to come back around again on the quick after the solo as the push to the finish. “Desperation Angel,” which is the shortest song at 2:40, is suitably frenetic but in-part melodic, and it’s probably the most efficient encapsulation on Guides for the Misguided of what the clean vocals add to the mix in terms of letting the band do new things, explore new sounds, and incorporate these ideas into their songwriting modus.
So, before you get to the actual particulars of 16, of Guides for the Misguided, what the album does and adds to the pantheon of the band’s catalog, on the most superficial level you have a band who’ve been around for 34 years who not only haven’t ‘settled’ in terms of their sound, but are actively pursuing new avenues of expression. It’s an admirable enough concept to be noteworthy, but that shouldn’t take away from the effectiveness of the material throughout. “Resurrection Day” — did I mention it gets very, very, very heavy? — gives over to the Bad Brains tune.
Following that rush, “Kick Out the Chair” — the guitar imagining a meeting between Scorpions and Crowbar that, sadly, never happened in our shithole timeline — gives about as much of a summary as Guides for the Misguided could ask, the doomed sensibility of the first several minutes holding firm in terms of atmosphere even as the riffs takeoff not to return, given a thick-rock epilogue in “The Tower,” which isn’t anything outlandish in terms of sound but is probably a song the band decided to do because they like it. 10 records in, one would not fault them digging a thing, even if it’s the likes of “Proudly Damned” and “Resurrection Day” and “Blood Atonement Blues” that’s most likely to result in repeat listens.
The word I haven’t said yet that I’m inevitably going to say is “underrated.” And yeah, part of what’s not being given its due here is the above — that 16 have been at this a long time and have never put out the same LP twice, never stopped looking forward, and never stopped being bold enough to actually try something after thinking of it — but whether you’re engaging from the point of view of the lyrics, the heft and impact of their tones, or the sort of nastyface epic groove they have a tendency to unfold at will, there’s really no getting around 16 as undervalued. Guides for the Misguided, with a familiar aggressive underpinning and a fresh sense of exploration and purpose, marks a step along a vibrant-if-destructive creative path. If you can get to it, it’ll bring you along. If not, it’ll be there waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Okay, no surprise I’m like, “DERP NEW 16 OMG COOL,” because I’m a dork like that. I was lucky enough to be asked to do some bio writing for 16’s upcoming onslaught, Guides for the Misguided, some of which is kind of interspliced with the promotional text below, the quotes and such. I assume the rest sucked. Fine. I hadn’t interviewed Bobby Ferry before, but dude was a sans-bullshit riot as I kind of expected, and was thankfully amenable to letting me rant about how fucking undervalued I think his band is. Because they are.
Having served in a backing capacity for decades in addition to playing guitar, Ferry took over on lead vocals for 16‘s last album, 2022’s Into Dust (review here), and while much of the story since the now-San Diego-based band began their second run with Bridges to Burn (discussed here) has been about the incremental progression they’ve undertaken in that time — also dat chug! — Guides for the Misguided includes clean, melodic singing in a way Into Dust didn’t, and is so purposeful in the doing that, more than three decades from their outset, one can only stand, point a finger at 16 and accuse the band of trying new things. Perish the thought.
Don’t worry. It’s not too pretty. Actually, from where I sit, the cleaner vocals make 16 a stronger band, without question. Another tool in the shed, sure, but the expansion of their dynamic results in richer songs, in material that can cover more ground from its brutalist foundations, and in the case of Guides for the Misguided, it feels like a conscious change, but an organic one helping them to make the album what they want it to be.
You get a preview in the first single “Proudly Damned,” for which a video is streaming below. Don’t be scared. You can handle it. And if you don’t come out the other end looking forward to this record… well, that’s a position with which I respectfully disagree and I think it might be advisable for you to revisit it. Sorry to be so harsh.
More to come, but that’s enough for now. You get the idea. Here’s word from the PR wire. Video’s at the bottom. Don’t skip this band or be put off if you don’t know their work. I’m not fucking around when I tell you this will be on my year-end list for 2025. Yeah, I know January is a week old. See “dork like that” above.
Go:
-(16)- To Release Guides For The Misguided Full-Length February 7th Via Relapse Records; “Proudly Damned” Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available
Nearly thirty-five years on, -(16)- remains one of the most enduring, hardest sounding rock and metal entities from North America. The San Diego band redefines heavy on their new album, Guides For The Misguided, set for release on February 7th via Relapse Records!
Bobby Ferry returns at the helm as the band’s visceral vocalist and guitarist, and in true -(16)- fashion, belts out stories of pain and unhinged anguish. Standout tracks like “Proudly Damned” see the band playing at the crowd while Ferry shares tales of personal strife and depression: “To defile and offend/These are the demons found within/The sullen face of communion’s alarm/It’s an incentive to do more harm.” Ferry is absolutely seething while the band plows through a virulent mix of rock, metal, and sludge. Dion Thurman’s pounding drum set, Ferry and Alex Shuster’s heavier-than-anything-else guitars, and the lowest low end from bassist Barney Firks herald tones so low they’re nearly apocalyptic.
1. After All 2. Hat On A Bed 3. Blood Atonement Blues 4. Fortress Of Hate 5. Proudly Damned 6. Fire And Brimstone Inc 7. Desperation Angel 8. Resurrection Day 9. Give Thanks And Praises (Bad Brains cover) 10. Kick Out The Chair 11. The Tower (Bonus Track – Superchunk cover)
-(16)- frontman Bobby Ferry comments on Guides For The Misguided, “The album came together after we wrapped the final mix of our last one, Into Dust. It’s all about harnessing creative momentum when it strikes and we’ve been in a kind of creative autopilot for about a decade. When inspiration is there, the rest seems to fall into place effortlessly. Thankfully, we’re still driven to write and perform even after all these years. There’s no grander meaning behind it than simply following that primal urge to create — put your head down and just make something.
“Age has of course given us a fresh perspective,” he continues. “In the eight years since Lifespan Of A Moth, our lineup has shifted. We lost a singer, gained Alex Shuster on lead guitar/producer, and I slid into the lead vocalist rhythm guitarist spot. Lyrically, we’ve moved beyond the personal and inward grievances of our earlier work and embraced broader themes of conflict, like the hypocrisy of religion and its negative effects on the psyche.
“There’s a song called ‘Blood Atonement Blues’ that delves into the story of Ervil LeBaron, often referred to as the ‘Mormon Manson,’ while ‘Proudly Damned’ explores addiction and how it turns into a Pagan Ritual with a witch-like character posing as the opiate – both in substance abuse and the spiritual realm – in parallel. In many ways, this album might be the closest we’ve come to creating a concept record. Including the two covers on the album is meant to lessen this heavy hand and lighten the focus.
“Musically, we are still grasping for the perfect riffs married to the most ideal arrangements. We’re not afraid to lean into the stuff we love: noise, classic rock, hardcore, doom metal, and thrash. We are well aware we are not reinventing the wheel but lovingly fashioning something from us and basically for us, first and foremost.”
Guides For The Misguided closes with the soberingly titled “Kick Out The Chair.” While the track sounds like a culmination of a thirty-five-year career, the band shows no signs of stopping; although the road ahead looks bleak, -(16)-‘s unrelenting trajectory continues upward.
-(16)- Live: 1/31/2025 Scumm – Pescara, IT 2/01/2025 Pippo Stage – Bolzano, IT 2/02/2025 Freakout – Bologna, IT 2/03/2025 Altroquando – Zero Branco, IT 2/04/2025 Vintage Industrial – Zagreb, HR 2/05/2025 Explosiv – Graz, AT 2/06/2025 Kabinet Muz – Bmo, CZ 2/07/2025 Liverpool Club – Wroclaw, PL 2/08/2025 Rockhouse – Salzburg, AT 2/09/2025 7er Club – Mannheim, DE 2/10/2025 V11 – Rotterdam, NL 2/11/2025 Gasttatte Ziller – Goppingen, DE 2/13/2025 Kuudes Linja – Helsinki, FI 2/14/2025 Raindogs House – Savona, IT 2/15/2025 Blah Blah – Torino, IT
– 16 – is: Bobby Ferry: Guitar, Vocals Alex Shuster: Lead Guitar Barney Firks: Bass Dion Thurman: Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The Parker Griggs-led classic hard psych-funk rockers El Perro will head back to Europe in 2025, and maybe that’s not a huge surprise since they’ve been on the road more or less since the band’s inception earlier this decade — lockdown notwithstanding — and, if you see them, doing it live is definitely a big part of the point they’re making. They note in the tour announcement below that after this run, which will put them in Euro clubs ahead of the Spring festival season, they’ll solidify their studio plans, which to me says maybe by the end of 2025 they’ll have something in the can unless they’ve got a backlog of recordings they’re using, and release either toward the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026.
Of course, once they plug in and hit it, the recording process itself likely won’t take all that long — see “doing it live” above — but there are a slew of logistical concerns in addition to things like finishing the songs that are to be considered. It’ll happen when it happens, I suppose is the bottom line. Cool that it’s even mentioned here. Oh, and in the blue text below, I’m assuming “dog things coming” is autocorrect for “big things coming” or the band playing off the name, but I left it in case that’s some kind of new slang the kids are using that I wouldn’t know about because I’m old and haven’t looked up from my laptop screen in a decade.
That might indeed be another European tour, as El Perro have already been confirmed for Bear Stone in Croatia (July 3-6) and Stoned From the Underground (July 10-12) and will likely have shows between if not also on either or both sides. Guess we’ll find out when we do. They’ll probably have US touring too this year. Madness.
From socials:
MARCH 2025 EUROPE TOUR! 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 🇩🇪🇨🇭
Hitting some all new spots this time around, stoked to see you out there soon! Shortly after the tour, making plans for the studio and to start laying down El Perro album number 2, to be released in 2025 🙂. Now and until then just been cooking on new songs and home demos, getting all ready. More news on all these things coming soon. Lots of dog things coming in 2025! Merry Christmas from the Perros!
Thanks to @jalondeaquiles for the amazing poster!
DATES! 10.03.25 SP Castellon, Sala Because 11.03.25 SP Valencia, 16 Toneladas 12.03.25 SP Barcelona, Sala Upload 13.03.25 SP Portugalette, Groove 14.03.25 SP Madrid, Wurlitzer Ballroom 15.03.25 SP Aviles, Factoria Sound 16.03.25 SP Navia, Secret Spot 17.03.25 FR Seignosse, Black Flag Bar 18.03.25 FR Nantes, Cold Crash 19.03.25 FR Lille, Le Brat Cave 20.03.25 NL Nijmegen, Merleyn 21.03.25 NL Breda, Mezz 22.03.25 BEL Harze, Misery Beer Co. 24.03.25 DE Recklinghausen, Backyard Club 25.03.25 DE Onsabruck, Bastard Club 26.03.25 DE Münster, Rare Guitar 27.03.25 SWI Seewen, Gaswerk 28.03.25 SWI Winterthur, Thurbinä 29.03.25 SWI TBA
